Spatiotemporal distribution patterns of deadly geohazard events in China, 2013–2019

Abstract

This study collected and compiled the deadly geohazard events that occurred in China during 2013–2019, and counted 779 deadly geohazard events, resulting in 2386 dead and missing persons (387 missings), 670 injured persons, and the number of people affected by the hazards reached 187,893, with an economic loss of about 534 million USD. We selected the number of events, the number of deaths and missing persons, the number of affected persons and economic losses as indicators, and analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of disaster events, and further discussed the characteristics of hazard types and triggering factors. The statistical units include annual scale, month scale, province/municipality and geographical region. The statistical results show that the number of deadly geohazard events showed a decreasing trend on the annual scale, and the casualties and losses caused rebounded. The high incidence of deadly geohazard events is concentrated from June to August. Deadly geohazard events are most frequent in southern and southwestern China and are most severe in terms of the number of deaths and missing persons. The same pattern applies to the analysis of provinces/municipalities. The most frequent types of geohazards are landslides and rockfalls, debris flows caused the highest number of people affected. Most of the event triggers are natural factors, and among them, the rainfall factor is the most dominant trigger. Precipitation shows a significant positive correlation with the number of deadly geohazard events on the monthly scale.